Current systems and methods incorporating traditional identification documents and/or credentials (referred to herein as, “ID”) include a set of defined relationships between certain persons/entities that delineate particular expectations amongst the certain persons/entities. These expectations may include, but are not limited to, such things as identification, verification, access, rights, privileges, payments, debits, credits, etc. between at least two of the owner of the ID, the issuer of the ID, and one who is inspecting the ID to verify the owner's proper status/qualifications/certification.
As a simple example, a traditional ID such as a driver's license is issued by an appropriate state department of motor vehicles (“DMV”) to a driver once the driver, typically, has met the DMV's requirements. Therefore, the DMV is satisfied of the driver's identity and qualifications and the driver is presented with the license to use as a token of the DMV's confidence in the driver's identity and qualifications. The driver may then use the driver's license to identify himself to a third party to verify, for example, the driver's age with the expectation that the verifying party will accept the license and accept that the information contained thereon is not false. The verifying party, upon inspection of the driver's license, will acknowledge that the driver's license is legitimate and that the driver proffering the license is the age represented by the birth date on the driver's license. Thus, the DMV, the driver, and the verifying party can satisfactorily rely upon the token (driver's license) as an authoritative and true representation of the information carried thereon. While the traditional document token system is useful for a limited set of conventional transaction types, the traditional document token system is becoming outmoded in the digital information age and cannot be effectively used for novel secure transactions and other innovative purposes, such as, for example, transactions that require user identification from a distance.
Current electronic ID systems and methods employ essentially the same type of process as that described above with an ID issuer, and ID owner, and an ID verifying party. The only difference is that the ID is electronic rather than a physical token. Due to the spate of computer hacking, identification theft, and other electronic scams, the current electronic ID systems are vulnerable to attack and unauthorized manipulation. Thus, current electronic ID systems and methods suffer similar limitations as the traditional document token systems and cannot be effectively used for more innovative purposes. Furthermore, current electronic ID systems have suffered a concomitant loss of consumer confidence in the accuracy and reliability of the electronic IDs.
Accordingly, there is a need for secure, reliable, and accurate electronic ID systems and methods that meet current consumer needs as well as the demands of novel identification techniques, secure transactions, and usages for the future.